YMCA raises money for youth sports

Thursday

Apr 11, 2013 at 10:35 AMApr 11, 2013 at 10:38 AM

Ryan Ronan @RyanRonan_KDE

KIRKSVILLE - The Adair County YMCA held their annual Strong Kids benefit dinner on Saturday night.

This year’s event was a murder mystery dinner and took place at Jackson Stables. The actors at Curtain Call Community Theatre took on roles of characters from the old west as they came by tables offering clues to who the guilty culprit was. Phil McIntosh directed the play.

The murder mystery dinner alone raised $3,000, which money went towards the organization’s overall goal of $30,000. The Y has raised a total of $15,780.

The Strong Kids campaign helps to raise money for local families that are not able to afford to pay for their memberships or program fees.

“The Strong Kids campaign is our annual self sustaining campaign. The YMCA is funded through three basic ways, membership sales, programs fees, and private donations. The private donation ensure that no family is ever denied the opportunity to participate at the YMCA due to the inability to pay,” said Adair County YMCA Executive Director Sarah Riffer.

Almost all of the money raised during the campaign goes to fund youth sports allowing kids to participate in soccer, basketball, football and other programs. Another destination for the funds is to help school age children attend summer camp and after school programs.

“Anytime one of the families in our community is in need of help we are here to help them. However, this is not a free ride, we ask parents and families to pay what they can. The amount of money that a family pays is all determined by a sliding scale,” said Riffer.

About 30 percent of the kids that take part in youth sports receive some sort of financial assistance. One of the goals of the Y is to not differentiate between those receiving assistance and those paying full price.

“We want to make sure that the people receiving the funds understand that it’s not a discount, someone else in the community has generously donated the other portion. No one knows who has made the donations or who is receiving them, we believe that everyone should be treated equally,” said Riffer.

The Strong Kids campaign is a four-week annual event.

“Every dollar we raise through the campaign will be kept right here in our community. We serve Adair, Knox, Scotland, Schuyler and Putnam counties and all of the money we raise is available to those communities,” said Riffer.